Is this getting old for you?  For me too.  Sorry.  Can’t figure out another way to test the setup and fix the problems.

skf

test jan 31 at 9:20

will this post to facebook, twitter and linked in…or not?

‘My body is a temple, and my temple needs redecorating’: Joan Rivers undergoes ANOTHER cosmetic surgery operation on reality TV show.

Hmmmm. Hypnosis is used for gastric bypass weight loss. I wonder if....

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2091455/Joan-Rivers-undergoes-ANOTHER-cosmetic-procedure-reality-TV-show.html#ixzz1kUBowO3A

Something to consider.

Sign up for Susan French Hypnosis Blog: http://bit.ly/pWgrcD 

Here’s to your success….

Contact me:  susanfrench2010@gmail.com

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Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.

                                     – David Brent

——————————————

How many more days did you say there were before [insert preferred Holiday

Life changes constantly.  Sometimes it’s hard to keep up.  Other times, you are the statue!

What can I say?  Keep on truckin.’

In keeping with  the Time-Suck Pie philosophy of daily living, there are exactly 25 days until Christmas.  That’s counting from today and stopping Christmas Eve, when we hope that everything is done that needs to be done.  There are 4 weekends, if you’re a nine-to-fiver.

As for me, I prefer to count the number of days until the holidays are officially over, which is January 2nd.  Then it’s my birthday, January 3rd.  That is my official,” holiday’s are over. Time to count my “poor little money” as an ex-BF’s mother used to say.

Happy “Before the Holidays.”  Try to remember that no matter what, Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) comes and goes each year, right on schedule.  It doesn’t matter if gifts are bought and wrapped or you’re sitting on the floor sucking on your thumb.

The holiday comes for one day and then it’s over until next year.  That thought is the only thing that keeps me sane: no matter what, ready or not, it comes and then it’s over.  You don’t die or go to jail for everything that ISN”T done.  Fuggeddaboudit!

Stay warm.  Stay well. Stay sane.  Don’t drink and drive.

Count your blessings

Here’s to your success…

Susan French, M.A., Cht.

http://www.hypno4success.com

888-333-3688

I am reposting this from an article in Psychology Today by Alison Bonds Shapiro, MBA, PhD.  Don’t miss it!

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/healing-possibility/201111/habits-mind-the-flavors-our-experience

“My friend and teacher, Frank, talked to me the other day about habits of mind and the underlying tone they give to whatever we are doing. It’s a fascinating thing to understand and notice. We don’t generally pay attention at this level. Habits of mind are subtle.

Glass of iced tea

They are like lemon juice flavoring a glass of tea. We might not see the lemon juice when we look at the glass, but it’s there and its presence changes the flavor of our experience of drinking tea. Habits of mind do exactly the same thing. They change the flavor of the moments of our lives.

When we wait in a grocery store line, there is an experience. We are upright. Our bodies are relatively still since we are not moving significant distances. We are probably warm and dry. There is a level of ambient noise – talking, cash registers, packages rustling, maybe music. There are odors – food, floor wax, other people. We may see people and equipment and windows and doors and shelves of goods. Maybe we have taken a taste of something we are about to buy and have that sensation in our mouths. That’s our experience. It’s complex, full of sensations, but it is neither good nor bad. It is simply our experience until we filter our experience through one of our habits of mind. Then it acquires a flavor…”

Great excerpt.  Don’t miss it.  http://bit.ly/v5uGcF

 

Don't suffer with IBS one more day!

Do you agree that all disease starts somewhere in the ‘mind’? First you have to understand that the words mind and brain do not mean the same thing. Then you have to understand that there is no way to separate the ‘mind’ from the ‘body.’ Bodies are attached to brain/minds and brain/minds are attached to bodies. There is no way to separate them.

What this means to you is that anytime you have a thought, feeling or idea, it registers somewhere in your physical body. Then your physical body responds to those thoughts in one way or another, negatively or positively by upping its need for oxygen/breath/blood supply, as well as the release of adrenaline which causes the muscular contractions in the first place.

It’s a devilish cycle that needs to be interrupted and controlled. You can do this with hypnosis.

We know that  you  have many ‘under the radar’ thoughts, feelings and ideas (i.e., unconsciously and subconsciously) which can cause disruption in the function of your body.

You also want to be aware that when we speak of ‘stress,‘ we are speaking of both the emotional feelings that we call ‘stress’ along with the physiological stress reactions in the body. I feel stressed/fearful/angry (the emotion); my body feels shaky/sweaty/faint/numb/flushed/weird (the physical sensations).

Whenever a thought crosses your mind about food or eating, blood starts to flow to your digestive system and enzymes are released.  Your conscious attention will probably check in to decide if, you are in fact, hungry. It is a fairly complicated process if you were to make a flowchart. Most of the time this complicated process happens below your conscious awareness. It’s automatic and proceeds as it should.

However, say you’ve had a really bad day, or a really bad week (not enough sleep, not good nutrition, no exercise, no breaks in your day to decompress, fear, anger, overwhelmed, frustrated), and your BODY slips into a stress-reaction.

Any disturbing thought, such as fear, anger, frustration, tells the mind to tell the body to start releasing adrenaline. Why? Because adrenaline is your body’s natural speed, so you can fight or flee or even freeze.

All kinds of changes occur in your physical body. You don’t need to know them all. Just consider that a burst of adrenaline would be like mainlining a pot of coffee: blood-pressure goes up, respiration goes up, contractions begin in your muscular system, which also causes an inhibition in blood flow. Suddenly you’re in pain, fear and more stress.

You have a stomachache, a headache, pain in your neck, pain in your back. All of these experiences are usually triggered by a burst of adrenaline, which constricts blood flow. In fact, most pain that we experience is caused by a restriction in blood flow, but that is a different discussion.

We all have one or more “sensitive” areas in our physical body; an area that seems hyper-reactive. Some of us get headaches, some get neck pain, others feel it in the digestive system, i.e., the gut.

IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, as far as we know, is caused by some level of stress. This stress might be caused by an allergy or other food sensitivity. When we eat or drink it, our body yelps in dis-stress. Message from brain to body: something’s not right: release adrenaline.

But even more significant is the kind of ‘stress’ that is caused by some strong emotion, usually negative, such as fear, anger, frustration, even grief.

What does all of this mean to you? It means that, if the sensitive part of your body, the part that always acts up when you are stressed out, is your digestive system (your gut), you can learn to control this stress reaction before IBS is even triggered.

IBS (or any digestive complaint) can be headed off before it begins. In addition, if any of that reaction managed to get through to send its message to your gut, you brain/mind can send an additional flow of blood to the area, oxygen reaches every cell via the blood system and that results in the relaxation of your muscles.

Oxygen is Mother Nature’s tranquilizer and Mother Nature’s pain killer. Oxygen steps up the blood flow, bringing that oxygen into all of your cells. What that means for your IBS is that the increase of blood flow will begin to calm and reduce pain and distress.

You can see, then, that using hypnosis to treat IBS and other digestive problems is not a magical, mystical occurrence. The process can be followed if you have the proper measuring devices.

If you suffer from IBS or other digestive distress, hypnosis can interrupt the stress reaction that causes the symptoms to begin and also to start calming the nervous system down. Using hypnosis, you can also increase the blood supply to the affected area, which will begin to decrease pain and begin healing.

Not only that, but hypnosis can be used as the master key to your bodily computer. In other words, when you are in hypnosis, you have more control over your autonomic (automatic) nervous system. Blood flow carries oxygen to muscles, which results in a calming in the affected (blood starved) area.

If you are one of those people who suffers from this often immobilizing, extraordinarily painful condition that seems to have no cause and over which you seem to have no control, not even with medication, you owe it to yourself to try hypnosis.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is not only physically painful but traditional medical treatment alone is usually ineffective for relief of symptoms. However, more than ten years of medical research has shown that using hypnosis in addition provides relief in over 80 percent of patients who try it.

Hypnosis has been so successful for improving IBS symptoms that Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, chair of the National Women’s Health Network in Washington, DC, says that hypnosis should be the treatment of choice for IBS cases which have not responded to conventional therapy.

Why suffer one more day? Call me and ask any questions you need answered. I’m happy to explain it all to you without pressure or obligation.

You can book a free consultation appointment on my web-based calendar. You can call me (888-333-3688), email me (susanfrench2010@gmail.com),or chat with me live on my website live chat.  You could find me  on Facebook where I frequently answer questions. What you shouldn’t do is to go one more day without finding out how you can have 100% relief from the agony and embarrassment of IBS.

Here’s to your success…

Susan French

http://www.hypno4success.com

888-333-3688

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Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.
–Oscar Wilde

Laughter is Still The Best Medicine

I often feel that life is a far more formidable opponent than my human being-ness can handle. Anything that that makes me laugh out loud gives me the edge I need in this daily battle.

I hope today’s Twitt-i-cism can do that for you as well.

Here’s to your success…

 Susan French

http://www.hypno4success.com

Call me and we’ll talk. I’m happy to answer all questions about hypnosis and therapy.  No obligation.

888-333-3688

I’m posting a wonderful article on causes, symptoms and remedies for ADD/ADHD, that I found on Psych Central:  http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sx1.htm

Psych Central is a wonderfully informative site about all things psychological, by Dr. John Grohol, Psy.D.  http://psychcentral.com/

****************

ADHD or ADD is characterized by a majority of the following symptoms being present in either category (inattention or hyperactivity). These symptoms need to manifest themselves in a manner and degree which is inconsistent with the child’s current developmental level. That is, the child’s behavior is significantly more inattentive or hyperactive than that of his or her peers of a similar age.

Symptoms of Inattention:

• Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities
• Often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities
• Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
• Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions)
• Often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities
• Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort (such as schoolwork or homework)
• Often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (e.g., toys, school assignments, pencils, books, or tools)
• Is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
• Is often forgetful in daily activities

Symptoms of Hyperactivity:

• Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat
• Often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected
• Often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it is inappropriate (in adolescents or adults, may be limited to subjective feelings of restlessness)
• Often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly
• Is often “on the go” or often acts as if “driven by a motor”
• Often talks excessively

Symptoms of Impulsivity:

• Often blurts out answers before questions have been completed
• Often has difficulty awaiting turn
• Often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or games)

Symptoms must have persisted for at least 6 months. Some of these symptoms need to have been present as a child, at 7 years old or younger. The symptoms also must exist in at least two separate settings (for example, at school and at home). The symptoms should be creating significant impairment in social, academic or occupational functioning or relationships.

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The last sound on the worthless earth will be two human beings trying to launch a homemade spaceship and already quarreling about where they are going next.

-William Faulkner

Familiar Fights with "Beloved Opponents?"

          I wonder if you can let your mind wander back to the last time someone made you so angry you couldn’t speak? You know the feeling: stomach in a knot, the words-you-wished-you’d-said racing in your head, you can’t force yourself into work no matter how hard you try, you feel like you’re going to explode?

I’m not talking about random, unimportant people either. I’m talking about the people in your family, spouse, mother, father, sister, brother, children, BFF, BFF’s spouse, co-worker, Boss. The people you can’t avoid or ignore. And I’m talking not talking about a once-in-a-while lapse in good judgment. I’m talking about those people in your life who you love or like for many, many reasons but there is that one wrenching trait that tears you a new one, every so often.

What do you do? What CAN you do? There are all kinds of communication skills suggestions in every fifth self-help book. And they’re valuable. They’re based on solid research and science. Speak in “I” language. Resist blaming, criticizing, judging. Maintain a strong intention to understand and find common ground. Remember why you love this person when you’re not angry.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that usually your Beloved Opponent is (maybe both, but usually one person) being very insensitive, selfish, disrespectful and/or mean. This person, at this time, refuses to see how they are at fault in any way.

So there you are. First you may fantasize about hiring a hit-man or resurrecting your rusty karate sidekick and kick the crap out of him/her. You breathe. You count. You kick the garbage can or go for a walk. You consider never speaking to this miserable jerk again, ever, in your life. But that passes. You probably run a number of scenarios through your consciousness and discard each one because you know anything you say or do is going to make it worse.

After all is said and done, then what? After you’ve written ten mad letters, filled with the worst expletives you can muster, (which you do not send, by the way). Your rage is beginning to ease. You are acutely aware that in the end, you have to communicate with this person. What’s worse is that you’ve probably been through this battle before with this person. He has probably even copped to his culpability in the past, after ravaging and devastating battles.

The issue at hand probably falls in the category of what folks in 12-Step groups call Character Defects. We all have them. They are our own blind spots. They are the things we can’t quite stop doing or we can’t quite see in context or in that moment: passive aggression, aggressive aggression, arrogance, selfishness, insensitivity, wanting everything our own way and in our own time frame, self-will run riot.

But here it is again. How do you get from the feelings of anger, pain and injustice to a place where you and this “Beloved Other” can begin to make up?

From years of doing counseling and more years of just living, I know that you only have one real option: you have to drain the rage you feel, in whatever way you can do it, until you are ready to remember why you loved this person in the first place.

I do it by writing many completely uncensored “mad letters” to the offender, refining each one down, removing expletives, until I can find a place of calmness and openness. I vent vigorously and self-righteously to whoever will listen. I go for a walk, a run or a swim. This level of rage can take days to process out; days lost of all productive action until you finally reach a place where you can say what you need to say in two or three sentences with a very tightly held intension to simply express how you feel without blaming the offender or expecting them to change their behavior.

Drs. Margaret and Jordan Paul, a husband and wife marriage-and-family therapy team, have written a wonderful book on this subject. Their book, “Do I Have to Give Up Me to be Loved by You?” lays out an effective way to bridge this painful state back to loving connection without creating the defensive stonewalling that occurs in these all-to-familiar situations.

The basic idea that they teach is that conflict is inevitable. They suggest that the only pathway to resolution is to talk to the other person in a way that doesn’t engender the defensive stone-walling that usually occurs. Their point is that if you have to find a way to tell your side of it, ie, “The World According to You,” without expecting the other person to change or take blame but only to hear how it feels to you.

They make a strong case that whenever you come into a conflict with the intention to get the ‘OTHER’ to accept blame or to change, you close the bridge of understanding and compassion. The only way you can communicate with your “ Beloved Opponent” and avoid defensiveness and blocking of communication is to use this “simple but not easy” formula. There is only one way is to approach this scenario that works.

        It is only when you are able to share and disclose “The World According to You” is without expecting your “Beloved Other” to change or be wrong that walls come down. The only way you can get your BO (to “hear your side of the story”) is to share without expectation of change or acceptance of blame. This really is the only path to intimacy and understanding. The only path.

 How do you do that? You could read the book or buy the recordings. You could let me guide you through these “SNARK-filled” waters back to the days when your felt love for this “Beloved Other.” Or you can do nothing and continue to experience this crushing disconnection. It is, of course, up to you, but if you want to come and ask me, you have my email address and my telephone numbers. I’ll be happy to share what I know.

Here’s to your success…

Susan French

Susanfrench2010@gmail.com

888-333-3688

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What to do? What to do?

USA Today has come out with a new survey: Apparently three out of four

people make up 75 percent of the population.

                     –David Letterman

There is no doubt that we live in stressful and complicated times. We have many technological advantages that make our lives easier. This should not be overlooked nor denied.

Logic would suggest that we no longer have to hunt or harvest food to eat. We no longer chop wood or pull buckets of water. We don’t even have to light candles to see. On top of that we have many ways to amuse ourselves. So then why does it always seem that there are never enough hours in the day nor enough days in the week?

After pondering this conundrum for awhile, I decided that I should try to figure it out. Just allowing these questions to continue to hover over my head without answer wasn’t cutting it.

What I began to realise was that having so many choices,  so many ways to be in this world in these days of unlimited options, was creating a crisis of priorities for me. The problem was NOT that I had too much to do. The problem lay in the number of choices clamouring for my attention.

Perhaps this ideas resonates with you. Perhaps a lightbulb is going off in your own consciousness. That leaves, of course, this problem of priorities. There are the “have to” activities, like work, paying bills, brushing your teeth. Then there are “have to if I want to get ahead” activities. Not to mention “I’m gonna die if I don’t get to xxxxx” activities. Then, of course, there are all the actvities that fall into the crevices between these activities, like: “I really need to call my mother,” “I really need to get to the gym,” “I really should bake those cookies for the bake sale at school.”

I ask you today, Gentle Readers, how do YOU sort through these never-endingly, always clutching activities that vie for your attention? The “gotta-do’s,” the “really should’s,” the “God, I wanna’s?”

Do you agree that is a question that really has no easy answers? The dividing up of the “Time Suck Pie” is exhausting in and of itself, don’t you agree? Please tell me, how do you guys solve this eternally nipping-at-your-heels problem? I beg of you. I’m just plumb tuckered out.

In the meantime, here’s to your success…

Susan French

http://www.hypno4success.com

888-333-3688